Winemaker Notes
It has the white peach, toasted almond or marshmallow, and ripe pear nose that is expected with Chardonnay, as well as plenty of weight, length, and richness. It is not showy, however — its opulence is natural, endemic to the fruit, not created in the cellar. It has a distinct mineral core of rock dust, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the vineyard.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Steve Matthiasson and his wife, Jill, bootstrapped their winery through their work in sustainable agriculture. Along the way, they developed relationships with growers at distinctive sites, like this one, owned by Richard and Susan Idell. Here, at the base of the mountains west of the town of Sonoma, the vines grow in a rocky colluvial slide. In 2017, those vines grew a fascinating and complex chardonnay, rooted in scents of wild thyme and high-toned white grapefruit. Nacho Monclus, the wine mind behind Brooklyn’s Camperdown Elm, said “it smells like Forcada from Torres,” a high-elevation project exploring local, ancient varieties in Penedès, or like godello, he suggested. “It’s beautiful until the very end, when the oak takes over from the yellow plum and apricot. But otherwise, it’s righteous wine.”
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.